On Thursday, the Ducks signed Jackson LaCombe to an eight-year contract extension with a $9 million AAV.

Following the Ducks’ practice at Great Park Ice in Irvine, general manager Pat Verbeek held a press conference with local media.

Below is a full transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

What did it take to get this done as quickly as it did?

Pretty quickly. I think both sides were looking at long-term deals, so I think it came together pretty quickly. I think what we're all trying to gauge is the landscape of where salaries and that sort of thing are going. So I feel really comfortable with the contract and the character of Jackson LaCombe. 
And I still think there's still lots of upside and growth in his game . I think the best is yet to come from Jackson, so it's exciting for the organization to get Jackson under contract for a long term.

When we had talked previously, when we were going through the McTavish stuff, you had said that you guys were working on negotiations with other upcoming RFAs.

Like I said, I was going to start to try and work ahead of this stuff. Jackson's the first domino to fall. We're working on other stuff as well, so we'll see what happens. As last week, things can change pretty quickly, so we'll just keep getting after it.

What gives you the confidence to make LaCombe the first one out of the gate with this?

Well, I've been watching Jackson for a long time. 
I've watched all of his college career, and then watched his first year here and then how he really transitioned (during his second year). And I think I noticed the big difference after his first year coming into training camp last year, the growth in him; I saw it. And then his world championships took off and now he's on the radar (for the 2026 Olympics). He made the Olympic (development camp roster). 
There's just a lot of positives and then his training camp here, watching him in the games. I mean, he's just going to be an outstanding defenseman for us.

Compared to negotiations in the past, like McTavish’s, for example, how did these differ?


They’re different circumstances. All the circumstances are different, so every negotiation's different. You're dealing with different pressures, different variables. So this one was different. 
And so it was nice for it to come together quickly.

Why did it make sense to get this done now as opposed to maybe during the season?

When you can try and get stuff knocked off the plate, we knew we were going to try and get some deals done. Jackson's camp just decided it was a good time to do it, so we agreed. 
So that's why we're here.

You mentioned LaCombe’s camp saying that this was a good time to do it. When we talked to McTavish last week, he kind of said that some of the ball was in his court when it came to signing that. 
How much of this getting done quickly was from LaCombe’s side of things?

Well, you need two sides to agree on something, and I think the players are viewing what's going on here. They're excited and they want to be a part of it, so when you get $72 million, it’s a good reason to sign.

How many guys do you put into the category as core pieces? It used to be five people talked about as those core pieces.

No, we consider our core bigger than that. Probably look at seven or eight guys, what I would target as our primary core guys.


Did any of the other deals that went down during the week, whether it was McTavish or Luke Hughes, kind of play into getting this done quick?

No. That didn't have any bearing on it. We’ve been working on it for a little bit. Things happen when they happen. It's like I said before, with Mason, things all of a sudden come to a head and get finished.


Is there any anticipation that you'll be able to get some of these other ones done quicker? Whether it’s Leo (Carlsson) or others.

Well, it's to hard say. We’ll have some talks, but I'm not sure, at this point, where any of this will go. 
It might have to wait till after the season and then we'll try and pick it up from there. So it's hard to say.

With how tightly compact the schedule is this year, does that make it harder to try to negotiate something during the season than it would in years past?

Not really. I don't think that really has any bearing on it. 
The agents are always available and, most of the time, I'm available to talk, and, you know, we can hash things out. So, not really with the schedule. A lot of times, it's just the preference of whether the player wants to wait till the season's over to do this and not get distracted by it. Some players, it doesn't bother them, and they can kind of continue to work through some of this stuff. 
So, a lot of times, the player’s camp will kind of dictate that, if they want to talk, or if they want to wait.

When it comes to setting those benchmarks for what the rest of the structure is going to be like, do you see that with McTavish? Do you see that with LaCombe as sort of baselines? 
You look at the forwards right now, McTavish, Terry and Granlund all making the same amount ($7 million). Is that sort of a ceiling you’ve put on those things?

Not really. Like I said, every negotiation is different. Every player, they all have different stats. There’s different variables. So the market sometimes dictates different numbers, too. 
You have to deal with all of it and you have to deal with it within your team structure. But you also have to deal with outside pressures, too. So there's a lot that you have to work through to kind of get a deal done.

Are there any trade clauses or anything attached to the LaCombe deal?

Yeah, there's modified trade clauses in there, the usual.

Leading up to today, how long were you and Pat Brisson (LaCombe’s agent) in discussions for this whole thing?

I really don't like to talk about that, but it came together pretty quick.